Wednesday, April 25, 2012

ASK THE DUST

The elbow heard around the world has
been endlessly discussed and written about, and some of the writing
has been good and reasoned. I don’t know that I’m the one to
interpret a half-second in the heat of battle, but the
league has levied a punishment that will last for seven games and
punishment and perception are in the eyes of the beholder.

When I was growing up, there was a ten
year-old kid who lived across the street in a perfect New England
house. Richie Littlehale was my older brother’s buddy, and regarded
as one of the coolest smart asses around. He’d sneak cigarettes and
lecture on the evils of vegetables. Richie came over for dinner one
night and whipped a magnifying glass out of his back pocket, zeroing
in on the spaghetti sauce. My mom asked what he was doing. “Looking
for trick food” was the reply. This created a lasting impression on
all of us, and made future nutritional efforts even thornier.

The seven day suspension is the league
equivalent of trick food. It’s supposed to be for the good of the
game I guess, but it’s filled with suspicious little bits and
pieces that considered on their own, taste like crap. I eventually
came to enjoy mushrooms and bell pepper. I’m not expecting to
embrace Metta’s absence.

Boiled down to its essence, the most
common narrative is an all too familiar speech,
“I know you didn’t mean to do it, but it was still wrong.” You
probably heard this as a kid from your parents and if you’re a
parent, you’ve probably said it to your own kid. It’s used in
school, work, sports, relationships. It’s a foundational argument
from the most minor slight to courtroom trials. Whether or not there
was intent, there was action and it deserves punishment. Because
that’s how it works. It’s the quickest, simplest means to an end
- corrective measures are necessary.

Throw his ass in jail. Take away the
job, the scholarship, the car and sports. Take away dinner and the
sleepover and the precious stuffed animal that listens soundlessly to
a child’s sobs. Take away the love.

At this point, the howls of protest
boil over, That shit has nothing to do with it! We can’t have
lawlessness taking over our fine sport - imagine the consequences if
the league handed down a lighter sentence. Everybody would try
and get away with it. Oh... like after Kevin Love stepped on Luis
Scola’s face and got a two game suspension, right?

Well actually no, the face stomping
epidemic never happened - because it was Love, not Peace. Chris
Mannix takes a swing at the precedent issue, that there is a history
and history has to be taken into account. He tosses Metta a charitable bone – all the work and efforts to reform his flawed character have to count
for something so he wouldn’t actually ban him for life, just for
the entire playoffs. That way, nobody else will go around throwing
elbows. Somewhere, Mutombo is laughing.

Where do I actually stand on the issue?
I’m not huge on excessive punishment and to be honest, mixed signals
are a way of life in this league. Still, I believe in the spirit of
compromise. No other thrown elbow has ever resulted in more than a
two game suspension, and it’s hard to see malice in the brief
moment it took Harden to get up in Peace’s back. Still, give
him the max punishment in terms of precedent and double it for
good measure – four games.

The Lakers head up to Sacramento for
the end of the line. They’ll be playing
without Peace obviously, and will also be without the services of
Matt Barnes who has a small ligament tear in his right ankle. The
team’s third place seed in the west is secure with the Clippers
losing to Atlanta, so the game is moot – it would be nice to see
Brown rest his starters, although not likely.

The real repercussions take place in the
playoffs. The Lakers will face either Denver or Dallas in the first round. They’re both tough matches and the loss of MWP will be real,
and it will matter. The discussion isn’t apt to go away any time
soon – it’s simply too juicy to ignore, The magnifying glasses
are out, and aren’t going back in anybody's pockets, anytime soon.

7 comments:

Deterrence has never worked as a policy, ever, for anything. Well, I take that back. It serves as an inexplicably accepted convention that means, "We basically just want to murder this guy back, but we're not comfortable admitting that, so let's call the death penalty a 'deterrence' to future, hypothetical crime instead."

I agree with all that you say, but I'm disheartened that "Ron" did this in the first place. I still remember McHale clothes lining Rambis. I think this kind of dirty play has no place in the game. I'm angry at MWP for being a cheap shot artist and for hurting the team just when he/we were playing well. Regardless the length of the punishment, it was a selfish act and sours me permanently on his commitment to the team.